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Re: For those who care about their packages in Ubuntu



On Thu, Jan 19, 2006 at 02:21:06AM -0600, Peter Samuelson wrote:

> [Thomas Bushnell BSG]
> > Since you don't do bin-NMU's, you could simply alter the version of
> > every package to add an "ubuntu" tag, and then be done with it,
> > right?  That would work well and be very easy to implement.

> You are so hung up on this point, it's not even funny.

> Do you really think users who fail to notice an "Origin" tag from
> apt-cache, and believe they're above using reportbug, will notice an
> "-ubuntuN" suffix in the version number?  I don't.  I think you are
> arguing on abstract philosophical grounds rather than trying to solve a
> real problem.

I think being able to uniquely identify a binary package by its version
number does have some value.  I don't think it's anywhere near so important
as to justify Thomas's strident objections.

> mdz is right when he says that we already discourage people from mixing
> packages from different distributions.  People still do it on occasion,
> but at some point there's little that can be done to stop it - short of
> making the .deb formats purposely incompatible so you *can't*
> cross-pollinate your box even if you try.  It seems to me that using a
> -ubuntu version suffix just to indicate "this package is compiled for
> Ubuntu" would accomplish approximately nothing.  It's busy work, and I
> hope the Ubuntu team don't ever feel so badgered by this thread to
> actually waste their time doing it.

It is the great danger of this thread that Matt et al. will feel
sufficiently put upon that they *don't* take to heart the legitimate
suggestions that could improve cooperation between Debian and Ubuntu (and
"distinguishing version numbers for binaries" being by far the least of
these).  "If you're not cooperating with me the way I want, I'll make you
regret it" doesn't benefit *anyone* involved.  Indeed, it just makes it
easier to conclude that Debian is no longer worth the effort of trying to
give back to.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/

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